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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) Rubber Band Faces Rejected at U.S. Patent Office

The U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office has rejected Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)’s patent on rubber banding, the
very patent that clinched its victory against Samsung. Rubber banding or scroll
bounce, is the technology that makes the image on a screen bounce when it
reaches its top or side limits.

However, this rejection is not
unlikely in the least as it has happened before with other companies and the
USTPO might take a year before announcing any decision, so in the meantime it
will not affect Apple that much. Samsung has already alerted federal Judge Lucy
Koh, who presided over the patent lawsuit between the 2 companies.

Michael Lasky, patent attorney
with Burr & Forman said that in patent reexamination the challenging party needs
to raise substantial issues relevant to the patent. The public profile of a
case can also play a vital role in influencing the decision of the patent
office as now it is aware that it might be a slip on their part to have a
patent held invalid by a court at some point. Since the patent has been
rejected, Apple will have to fight to defend their position.

Samsung has also requested Judge
Koh to declare the jury verdict in Apple’s favor as null and void. The USPTO's
decision may strengthen that motion, but it might not be powerful enough to
coerce Koh to toss out the complete verdict. However, some tweaks and
modifications will be in place for sure and Apple does stand to lose some of
its weightage due to those. Moreover, if Samsung can incorporate the overscroll
bounce effect in its products sold in the U.S., Apple will be somewhat
affected as it no longer holds exclusive rights to that technology.

1 comment:

I can't believe that any jury would vote in Apple's favor on the patents they were suing Samsung for. Then again, I can't believe the stupidity (or is it corruption and bribes) in the US Patent Office that granted these (and MANY other) stupid patents to Apple in the first place.